I just started reading Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to stop worrying and start living’ after finding it in a second hand bookshop while I was on holiday. It is a pretty old book – I think it was first published in 1948 and my particular version was published in 1962! have never been one for self help books and don’t remember ever reading one before, but this one is actually quite good and, refreshingly, also seems quite Christian. It is so nice to have a book that isn’t all ‘new agey’ or focused on self – and even quotes the bible liberally along with philosophers and other good sources. The only draw back is the title is really big and on the front and back – so I get a bit worried reading it on the train that people might think I am a nervous wreck or something! (perhaps that is something I need to stop worrying about!!)

I’ve only read the first couple of chapters so far. It talks a lot about the health problems that stress and anxiety cause – a lot! He quotes a doctor who says the best advice for good health is this:
“The most relaxing recreating forces are a healthy religion, sleep, music and laughter. Have faith in God – learn to sleep well – Love good music – see the funny side of life – And health and happiness will be yours.”

If you’re a worrier, the first bit of advice the book offers is quite similar to the wisdom of Jesus himself – to live in ‘day-tight compartments’ and to have no anxiety about tomorrow because of the worries of today are enough for today. ‘This is the day that the Lord has made – rejoice and be glad in it’. To quote the book “Five hundred years before Christ was born, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus told his students that “everything changes except the law of change”. He said: “You cannot step in the same river twice.” The river changes every second; and so does the man who stepped in it. Life is a ceaseless change. The only certainty is today. Why mar the beauty of living today by trying to solve the problems of a future that is shrouded in ceaseless change and uncertainty – a future that noone can possibly foretell?”

At the end of the chapter the book asks the following questions of the reader:

Do I tend to put off living in the present in order to worry about the future, or to yearn for some ‘magical rose garden’ over the horizon?

Do I sometimes embitter the present by regretting things that happened in the past that are over and done with?

Do I get up in the morning determined to “Seize the day” – to get the utmost out of these 24 hours?

I guess I could add, whether I trust in God to get me through the day, or take everything on to myself… so often I do!